2011 Giro d'Italia - What the Bookies Think!The odds for the Giro d'Italia from Sportingbet Australia.

The Giro d'Italia is fast approaching and it appears that Alberto Contador is an odds on favourite to collect his second Giro crown and sixth grand tour when the race commences on Saturday, the 7th of May. It is not surprising considering the last five Grand Tours Contador has competed in, he's won.

Contador's first Tour de France crown came that year and his then team, Astana were not invited to the Tour de France in 2008. That made Alberto Contador concentrate on the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana and he won both.

With Lance Armstrong returning to the sport of professional cycling in 2009, that made Contador solely focus on the Tour de France and alas he won. He focused his attention then to the 2010 Tour de France where he managed to scrape home beating Andy Schleck in a tight three week battle.

Can anyone beat Contador?

2010 Vuelta champion Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) and Michele Scarponi (Lampre) are next best rated to beat Contador at $5.50 and $7 respectively.

2009 Giro winner Denis Menchov is the next best chance at $15. The Russian has a strong Geox team featuring Carlos Sastre and could be Contador's main threat. Menchov also has the Vuelta crown, winning that twice in 2005 and 2007. He has the experience to match Contador and with the better team is more of a threat than what the odds suggest.

Igor Anton, who was one of the better riders at last year's Vuelta is $15. If he can get through the three weeks without crashing, he is a major chance to win.

Contador's compatriot, Joaquin Rodriguez is listed at $17. Rodriguez came 8th in last year's Tour de France and followed it up with 4th place in the Vuelta a month later. Rodriguez is a solid climber and with some of the climbs in this year's Giro being steep, he could be a major threat. His time trialing, however, may let him down, particularly the last one in Milan on the last day. With that said, however, there's an uphill time trial and team time trial and he may not lose huge chunks of time in them.